Tonio K Albums

Tonio K Bio

Tonio K. (born Steven M. Krikorian, July 4, 1950) is an American singer/songwriter who has released eight albums. His songs have been recorded by Al Green, Aaron Neville, Burt Bacharach, Bonnie Raitt, Chicago, Wynonna Judd and Vanessa Williams, among many others.{Warner-Chappell Music Publishing, 1991–2000} His song, "16 Tons of Monkeys," co-written with guitarist Steve Schiff, was the featured tune in the 1992 Academy Award winning Short Film, Session Man. He worked with Bacharach and Hip-Hop impresario Dr. Dre on Bacharach's At This Time, which won the Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Recording in 2005.

As a teenager, Krikorian, along with friends Alan Shapazian, Steve Olson, Nick van Maarth, and Duane Scott, formed a surf-funk/psychedelic-punk band called The Raik's Progress, which recorded a single for Liberty Records, released in 1966. Known for their Dadaist-inspired between-song routines, one reviewer described their performance while opening for Buffalo Springfield at San Francisco's Fillmore Auditorium as being like "the Three Stooges playing strip poker with Iggy and the Stooges." A full-length album by the band, Sewer Rat Love Chant, was eventually issued on Sundazed Records in 2003.